Friday, August 31, 2012

The Films That I Saw: August 2012

Summer is finally ending and honestly, it’s kind of relief. Personally, it wasn’t a very good summer due to personal issues and such. Still, it didn’t stop me from watching a lot of films as the month of August started off slow. Thanks to a change in medication, I was able to feel relaxed and watch films with more focus. Though the change in medication would have me take a much longer time in writing a review, depending on the film, it at least made me less worrisome.For the month of August, I saw a total of 41 films. 18 first-timers and 23 re-watches. Down from last month but enthusiasm has grown. Even as I went into a period of watching some films by Andrei Tarkovsky for my Auteurs series as it was definitely the highlight of the month. There was also a brief period of the movie channel EPIX playing on my satellite for a while as I got a chance to DVR some movies to late in the month with a few for next month. Here is a list of the top 10 first-timers that I saw:1. The Sacrifice

A documentary about the legendary Krautrock band explores the band’s history just as they were set to release a remix album made by other artist. It features interviews with the band along with loads of performance clips as well as rare footage of rehearsals and such. One poignant scene is the meeting between the band’s two singers in Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki as they talk about their contributions to the music of Can.Puss in Boots

I do love the Puss in Boots character as I was interested to see his origin story. While it is better than the last two Shrek films, it doesn’t reach the heights of some of Dreamworks Animations films like Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, and the original Shrek. Still, it was entertaining enough as it is filled with lots of adventures along with some great voice work from Salma Hayek, Billy Bob Thornton, and Guillermo del Toro in a small roles as the Commadante.Top 10 Re-Watches:1. Almost Famous

@Chip-Scarlett was pretty much my favorite actress back in 2003 and she completely knocked it out the ballpark that year with not one but 2 great performances. I often said that Girl with the Pearl Earring is her best performance but Lost in Translation remains her best film.